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Tyria
Tyria, also known as The Known World, is a world on the Material Plane. Most knowledge of Tyria was lost during the several Cataclysms that it endured, however it is known to consist of the continents of Albion, Exandria and Wildemount, and is orbited by two moons, Aetherius and Secundra. Tyria is home to a vast array of humanoids, each with their own languages and cultures, as well as a menagerie of diverse beasts and aberrations. Many civilisations have risen and fallen over the course of Tyria's existence, with the current pinnacles of civilisation vying for control of Albion, the Northern Kingdoms and the Dwendalian Empire. History The following information outlines what is known within scholarly circles and historical archives, kept by the monks of the Temple of the Divines or the historians of the Arcana Pansophical. The learned student may begin their journey with seeds of this history to explore, while others uncover its truths as they wander along their path. Regardless, we all came from somewhere, and to learn from history is to write a better destiny. Life ever seeks to understand its inception. Every civilization has its own interpretation of where its story began. Even within the world of Tyria, different cultures have creation myths that eventually converge with history, but there is no known definitive story. Even so, the ancient city of Vasselheim on the Isle of the Gods is largely considered the oldest surviving city, having endured a terrible war that wiped out most of civilization more than a thousand years ago. Vasselheim houses the earliest known temples to the gods, and the earliest known records of history that survived this catastrophe. Widely accepted as the true record of the world’s origins, the myth of “The Founding” is the interpretation held and embraced within most of Albion, as well as the vast lands of Tyria. The Founding Creation Primordial Long ago, this world was one of tumultuous and chaotic forces. Naught but unbridled fires, and churning, sawlike rock made up its substance. Through the ashen skies of Creation Primordial, the first gods, the Forerunners, came from beyond the ether, new and formless. Looking upon this roiling realm, they saw potential for great beauty, great strength, and the chance to learn their own place in creation. Thus, divine hands formed the First Children, the Elves, created with physical grace reflecting the gods’ own divinity, to walk the verdant lands and know the music of the blue skies. A second creation was wrought—the Dwarves, a hearty people intent on taming the land, filled with the craft and invention of the divinity beyond the ashen void. A third people were given life: the Humans, endowed with hearts of passion that burned as brightly as their spans of life were short, filled with the celebration and laughter of the hands creating them. Other creations followed as the many races of Tyria were given form from the boundless inspiration the Forerunners expressed. These Children of Creation walked the land, and as their knowledge grew they attempted to build. But the land was fierce and treacherous, and the children were largely dashed and consumed by the elements. Sorrow filled the hearts of the gods while these first races continued to struggle against a land that did not want them. The Children looked to their creators for guidance and protection. The gods gave to them gifts, lending their own power to their children to create and shape the world around them; these were the first divine magics. Thus, the various peoples began to learn how to bend the angry earth to their will: to temper the fires that burst through, to tame the floods that threatened their abundance, and to foster seedling into fruit and beast into meal. Language became commonplace, culture was born, and governance replaced anarchy. The Forerunner Creators, the divinity beyond the ashen skies, saw progress and saw that it was good, yet fragile and in need of guardians. So were born the first Protectors: the Dragons Metallic. These Protectors watched over the fairer races. The realm grew quieter, the people expanded, and new races were given form and life. As culture grew, and the people further understood the world around them, they too looked up to their Creators and gave them worship, gave them form, gave them title, and purpose Rise of the Primordials But this realm did not wish to be tamed. Quaking cliffs roared in defiance. Seas swelled and swallowed. Flames erupted from underneath the lands. Beneath the elements, unknown to the Forerunners beyond the ashen skies, lived ancient beings who had already taken this world as their home: the Primordials. These great Elemental Titans that once dwelt deep within the land now rose from their unseen domain to sunder the land once more. The gods watched as their children—their joy—were largely dashed against the broken rock or fed to formless terrors unleashed in the wake of the destruction. Demonic entities spilled from the umbra of The Abyss to feast on the carnage, called forth by the violence and released to pick the carrion clean. The Betrayal Some gods were so full of grief and anger they wished to abandon this world for another, trying to convince their divine kindred to join the Primordials in reclaiming the realm for chaos so they could move on to start anew. Others of the Forerunners wished to remain and subdue these native Primordials, to tame the land for the sake of their creation and joy. This caused a divide among the gods. Some left the family of the Forerunner to give into madness, joining their song and sword to that of chaos and destruction, taking and twisting their children in the image of their intent. These hateful deities became known as the Betrayer Gods. Celestial sentinels locked into war with the chaotic forces of the Abyss fell to hate and tyranny, forging the Hells under a fallen angel now claiming lordship. The remaining Forerunners, wishing to salvage their home, their creations, and their realized selves, were forced to take up arms and learn new methods of protection to defend the faithful among their creations. These gods are referred to as The Divines. Destruction of the Primordials The Divines organized their followers and taught them how to draw from the very powers of creation: to build, to change, and to destroy, all for themselves and without the aid of divine power. Creation learned to defend itself through practices such as alchemy or by autonomously bending the very fabrics of existence, though not on the scale of the gods’ works. This gift was the knowledge of the first arcane magics. With these newly granted capabilities, the good children drove away their traitorous kin, banished the Betrayer Gods to their own prison-like planes, and ultimately destroyed the Primordials while scattering the chaotic elements to their own planes of existence just outside of this one. Peace finally blanketed the world for the first time since creation, and the first real civilization took root and grew into a grand city called Vasselheim. The Cradle of Creation. The Dawn City. Culture developed anew, the races ventured beyond to explore and discover their own lands, and great music filled the air to give name to this world once and for all: Tyria Age of Arcana Wonders of Magic Over time, some of the peoples grew arrogant. Seeing their arcane gifts as proof the gods held no sway over their fate, some began to believe that, with enough understanding, they could become as powerful as the gods themselves. As such, many began to shun faith for their own pursuits. Though this hurt and surprised the Divines, they understood the willfulness of their creation and endured out of love and hope for redemption. Great kingdoms sprang up. Castles were built in a day, accelerated by the arcanists’ newfound power. Even though magic could be used to complete the most difficult tasks with hitherto unknown speed, magic-users strove always to innovate. As mages practiced and perfected their powers of creation, they soon unlocked the secrets of life itself, giving birth to wondrous, dangerous new forms of life and power. The advent of the arcane seemed to be the key to a bountiful age of plenty, but also proved to threaten it, as prosperity soon gave way to greed. Petty squabbles erupted over resources and wealth among the elite, while the rumor of immortality through perfected arcanum began to drive the greatest mages wild with a lust for power unending. One mortal mage, her name either lost or struck from history, crafted now-forbidden rites to challenge the God of Death, felling him and taking his place among the pantheon, making her the first and only mortal to ascend. One powerful archmage, Orthorn Ancano, was inspired by this display. Driven by his hunger, he sought the guidance and power of the Betrayer Gods, rending open the gates of their prisons and releasing the betrayers into the mortal world. In their imprisonment, the gods of Hatred and Despair twisted their prison into their own image, spawning unthinkable horrors that lived only to transform peace into suffering, and righteousness into arrogance and greed. The Hells and the Abyss began to push their way into Creation. Return of the Betrayers The Betrayer Gods and their hateful children, unbanished and allowed re-entry into the Creation that had exiled them, discovered the world unspoiled, save for the avarice of mortals. The urge to ruin was now replaced with the desire to dominate, and the Betrayer Gods turned their sights first to the Archmage Orthorn who freed them, making him their first thrall. The Betrayer Gods sought out the remnants of their offspring, scattered across the world, and created with them a mighty and terrible new kingdom on the far end of the world—Labyrinthia. In this land of evil, where the twisted power of the lower planes seeped into this world, the lords of darkness tainted the minds of mortals, hungrily welcoming those who had forgotten their way home, and offering great promises and boons to hearts easily swayed. These poisonous seeds found fertile ground in the hearts of mortals obsessed with the unlimited power of the arcane. With a legion of the damned behind them, the Betrayer Gods soon made their presence known to the world with an assault on Vasselheim itself. Though much of the city was reduced to rubble, Vasselheim weathered the initial assault, saved by the intervention of the Divines, who descended to trade blows with their former brethren. The battle between divinity and mortalkind, heroes and demons raged ceaselessly for twenty days and nights until the dark forces, their surprise attack thwarted, were forced to retreat. Evil was repulsed momentarily, but with the revelation of such a terrible foe, a dangerous arcane arms race began. Trust was shattered indefinitely: If mortals could fall under the sway of the Betrayer Gods, who was an ally? If ruin like this could be unleashed under the watchful eyes of divinity, how were they relevant? The Calamity Not trusting any but themselves, the self-interested and singular Humans beat their instruments of celebration into instruments of incredible power: artifacts that could be wielded by singular heroes. The Dwarves’ fascination with rock and earth turned toward isolation as they burrowed further into the mountains, using their divine gifts to animate legions of autonomous golems to protect their ancestral halls. Elves used their understanding of creation’s beauty and intricacies to weave spells of unimaginable destructive force, the likes of which Tyria had never seen before. For the first time since the Primordials, the focus of magic was warfare. The Divines themselves agreed to join their children on the field of battle, descending from the heavens to take up arms once more for the war now referred to as “The Calamity". No record remains of the terrible war that followed, but its effects are still felt today. The sheer magnitude of the energies unleashed in the ensuing battles of gods and mortals alike was enough to fray the boundaries holding back the elemental chaos, spilling unbridled destruction into the world. It completely rearranged the known flow of magical energy across Tyria. The dark kingdom of Labyrinthia was brought to ruin, but the conflict devastated Tyria’s peoples, reducing most cities to ash, inspiring in many a desire to flee from this plane of existence entirely. So great was the loss of life during the war that historians believe no more than a third of Tyria’s population survived, leaving the only remaining bastion of civilization: the Dawn City itself, Vasselheim. The world entered a long, dark period of recovery, when history had to be recovered and purpose had to be restored. The Betrayer Gods were banished once more to their realms of hatred and despair, but the threat of their return weighed heavily on the world. The Divergence The Divines felt that their involvement in mortal conflict was to blame for the cataclysmic damage inflicted upon Tyria. They knew that while the divine gateways were left open, the prison planes that held the banished Betrayer Gods would remain imperfect and temporary. Thus, in hopes of ensuring such ruin would not befall Tyria again, they left their children to fend for themselves within and beyond the walls of Vasselheim. The Divines returned to their own realms, dragging both Betrayer and Abomination with them and sealing the pathways to the mortal realm behind them with the Divine Gate. Only in this way could they prevent their corrupted brethren from physically returning to the material plane. Sadly, for the Divines, this action also carried with it a self-imposed sentence of exile. They would henceforth never be allowed to visit Creation. The disappearance of the gods is known by many names: “The Second Spark” for those who study the arcane; “The Penance” for those who seek closeness to their gods; but the most common name for this time of warfare and separation is “The Divergence,” and it marked the end of the Age of Arcanum. Much time has passed since, and the world has been reborn once again. The gods still exhibit their influence and guidance from beyond the Divine Gate, bestowing their knowledge and power to their most devout worshippers, but the path of mortals is now their own to make. New cities, kingdoms, and cultures have retaken the world, built over the ashes of the old. New songs fill the air, and the hope of a brighter future drives people day after day, while buried ruins and forgotten relics remind all people of a darker time of mistakes that should never be repeated.